Divided Calif. GOP seeks to reverse decline

SACRAMENTO, Calif. 
After steep losses at the polls and successive years of dwindling registration, California Republicans gathered this weekend amid infighting over the direction of a party that is ideologically divided and facing an uncertain future in a rapidly changing state.

For the first time in many years, frustrated moderates are publicly pushing back, resisting efforts to further insulate the party in what they say is an effort to save the California GOP from itself. In the process, they hope the party will begin to appeal to independent and minority voters, the fastest-growing segments of the state's electorate.

The party lost every statewide election last fall and has dropped to less than one-third of all registered voters in a state that claims conservative icon - and former governor - Ronald Reagan as a favorite son.

"It's a healthy debate that this party is finally having between people who are very rigid ideologically versus those who want to regain numbers to win elections," said Julie Soderlund, a consultant to Republican candidates and former spokeswoman to then-Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and 2010 U.S. Senate candidate Carly Fiorina.

The feud at the party's spring convention in Sacramento includes a proposal to let local GOP groups decide the party's nominees under the new top-two primary system. They also were considering a divisive resolution to brand Republican lawmakers as traitors for compromising on the state budget, but it was withdrawn in a party committee meeting.

Delegates heatedly debated a proposal to help the party blunt the effects of Proposition 14, the open primary measure that was intended to produce more moderate candidates from both parties.

The outgoing party chairman and other insiders want to choose which candidates should run for office, thereby giving the party control over who gets nominated. Others say such a move will erode debate within the party and further alienate centrist voters.

The debate, however, reached beyond insider politics.

Despite a Republican surge at the polls nationwide last November and two well-funded candidates for governor and U.S. Senate, the GOP lost every statewide race in California and a seat in the state Assembly to Democrats, who control both houses of the Legislature. Voter registration has slipped below 31 percent, compared with 44 percent for Democrats and 20 percent for independents.

The party's donors are frustrated and reconsidering whether they should invest in an organization that offers few returns, said Jeff Miller, the GOP fundraising chairman.

"If we continue to only talk to 30 percent of the electorate, we're going to continue to lose. And the donor community is very frustrated," he said. "This is investments for them. They do that because they believe the Republican philosophies are the best for the state, but they're not going to continue to dump money into a bad investment."

Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour, a potential GOP presidential candidate, told the crowd Saturday night that Republicans will be resurgent in California the same way they will win the White House in 2012 - by focusing on issues, not ideology or personality.